Here is a picture of our office Elders: Elder Beck and Elder Ison with the baptisms that they had last weekend.  We love hearing about what they are doing in their afternoons/evenings after their office work and it was great to see the fruits of their labors. They are such good missionaries and we sure do enjoy them.....kind of like adopted grandsons!

 

On Tuesday each week we go to District Council with the Bantama District.  These are the missionaries that we get to interact with:(left to right) Elder Andobo, Elder Barton, Elder Brigham, Elder Call, Elder Bonnett, Elder Braithwaite, Sister Forkpah, Sister Kakou, Sister Gurure and Sister Ilulu. Since we are in the office every day, we don't get a chance to mingle much with the missionaries that much, so we feel blessed to go to this great District and hear their instruction and discussions.  They do a great job! Many of them were transferred this week, so we will see some new faces next Tuesday!

One thing that is very interesting here in Ghana is the advertisements of the various religious crusades that are held.  The signs that are put up are HUGE!  Above is a billboard of Daniel Kolenda....if you google his name you will see that he attracts thousands of people to his Crusades.....it is uncanny.  

Here is another example of one of the giant billboards.  You can get an idea of how really large they are by looking at the people and cars......these kinds of programs are going on all the time!

 

Last week were had transfers.  We had 14 missionaries going home.  Part of my job as the secretary is to request their tickets, check to see if they are correct, let their home ward and parents know and keeping track of their passports and tickets.  I also get letters ready for the president to sign that go  to their parents, bishops and stake presidents and create certificates and laminate them.  There is more....but needless to say, there are a lot of little details to keep track of.  To keep myself straight and to not forget things, I made a checkoff sheets....this is my check off list of this last group......😵

And here they are!  President and Sister Kunz have a dinner for them the night before they leave and they are given these banners as a keep sake. It is always bitter sweet to send these missionaries home.  They have served well and are now ready to get on with the balance of their lives, hopefully better equipped to serve and to be successful in what they choose to do.  We wish them all the best!

Here is a picture of us with the Moomeys and the Kunzes and the office elders and the assistants to the president.  These are the people we work closest with.......this was after we had the meeting where we figured out who was doing what during transfers!

Here is Hannah turning the fufu while Simon (our guard) pounded it! Do you see her hand in there scooping and shaping the ball of fufu while that huge pestle is coming down with full force?????

Elder Garrison gives it a try and so did I!  Harder than it looks!

President Kunz even got in on the action!!!

For the going home dinner for the October group, our sweet cook Hannah made fufu. She actually asked them what they wanted her to cook, and the majority wanted fufu!  I have to say that making fufu is no 15 minute quick meal!  First she has to peel and cut up the cassava and the plantains and then she boils them to make them soft.  After that she puts them one by one in a wooden bowl and they are pounded to death.  She does the plantains and then the cassava.  They are both pounded until they reach the proper consistency. (kind of like a slick dough) While  someone is pounding it, she is turning it with her hands and folding it so that that big wooden pestle has a glob to pound.  While I watched, I was so nervous that her hand was going to be smashed!!!!  Doing what she did is definitely an art and there is without a doubt a rhythm to the whole thing.  ....it is much like a synchonized dance!  Elder Garrison and I both gave it a try.  We know now why Africans have such great arms.....it is HARD work.  Our guard Simon did most of the pounding! 

Here we are with Elder Ison....we are going to miss him and his technological wizardness!  He was always willing go help us with computer gliches or whatnot.  He was transferred to Bekwai!

This past week I listened to a great devotional by Anthony Sweat on Endowments.  The whole devotional is definitely worth listening to, but my favorite quote from the talk was this:

"We live in a time that almost worships individuality.  The common refrain today, especially in social media is "follow your own path," be independent, "don't let anyone tell you what to do, "highlighted by the modern philosophical phrase "Hey!You do you." But Christ's covenant call to us is "BE LIKE ME."

That is certainly our goal, of course, we are far from it, but we strive each day to be Christ-like in our relationships with others.  We are so thankful for His example.

Thank you all for your love and support. Stay strong and steadfast!

Love from Ghana,

The Garrisons